Poison Well
by Nirin Tani
Summary: Sanctuary is a world of heroic deeds and of utter human misery... witness both as two adventurers confront Lilith, the Succubus Queen! A standalone story following Matters of Faith.
1. Descent into the lair

The house of healing lay at the north end of the village of Tarnholm, its two stories of once-white stone and the makeshift cross hung above the door looking as battered as the rest of the gloomy town. Justiniel, Paladin of Zakarum, and Vijaya, an Amazon from the South, approached the place, their faces grave with the grim reverence of knowing what a consecrated place stood for – while fearing what it may have become.

A small courtyard buffered the door, its low stone walls surrounding a floor of packed clay. At the center stood a low well, both decorative and functional. The dark-skinned Paladin paused, shifting the weight of his shield on his armored back, and peered down into the well. "Vijaya." He motioned to her. "Come, look at this."

The Amazon, a lithe blonde armed with a rune-inscribed shield and a set of magnificently crafted javelins, stepped over to likewise examine the well. The water was barely visible in the dark recesses, and a foul-smelling green slime ran in streaks down the sides. Vijaya touched a gauntleted finger to the inside of the well and drew it out. The drop of green sludge hissed and bubbled caustically. "Elemental poison."

"In the well… an ill portent, indeed."

She wiped the gauntlet on a relatively clean outer stone. "At least it means we're getting close to what we seek. Come on, let's see how things are faring inside."

They walked to the door of the clinic, their boots squelching on the ground. More of the green ooze ran in a clay-mud slick from the well to the doorstep. The heavy, moldering wooden door opened noisily, and the two heroes stepped inside.

Just ahead, past a short hallway, they could hear the sounds of an infirmary too busy for its own good: the shuffle of feet, the clink of potion vials, the pained moaning of the sick. The hall led through a modest archway to an open room filled with rough cots, easily thirty or more of them spread throughout. Every one held an ailing person, their skin wan and greenish. Even more sat in corners or at the sides of the room, in chairs or on the bare floor, looking barely able to remain propped upright against the walls. Healers bustled about, applying damp cloths or offering sips of some palliative draught. Some of these attendants wore the formless purple robes of a religious order, while others, possibly volunteers, wore stained aprons over common clothes. There could have been no more than eight or ten of them in all.

One of the robed healers, a middle-aged woman, approached the newcomers with a stern expression. "How dare you walk into a place of sanctuary so armed? What business have you here?"

"Peace." The Paladin held up a hand. "I am Justiniel, a humble knight of Zakarum, and this is my ally, the Amazon Vijaya. We mean to aid you; it looks like you could use the help." He nodded toward the cots behind her. "These poor souls are suffering the same ailment that's blighted the rest of the town, I take it?"

"Yes." His reassurances seemed to take the edge out of her face and voice, letting her obvious fatigue show through. "We've been receiving patients like this for a week now. Some of them collapsed on our very doorstep, scarcely able to make the walk from their homes to the clinic. We may not be able to keep up much longer – some of our own have begun to succumb." She pointed to one cot and its occupant, next to which a purple robe lay folded. A ring glinted upon her hand.

"Then please. Allow me to ease the suffering, and perhaps grant your people a respite."

The healer nodded, and Justiniel walked to the center of the room to kneel in prayer. The room brightened with a soft white light, and slowly, each of the ailing people found their pain relieved. Some slipped into restful slumber, while others sat up or stood, murmuring in wonder at the Paladin's miraculous power.

Meanwhile, Vijaya took the healer woman aside. "Do you oversee this place?"

"Yes. I am Zemere, of the Sightless Eye, and I have managed this little infirmary since the Sisterhood claimed it." She held up her hand, displaying the ring: it bore a symbol of a silhouetted eye.

"Claimed it? What was this building before that?"

Zemere shook her head. "A house of ill repute, with a front as a tavern. The… honest townsfolk despised its presence, and were glad to see it uprooted."

She did not inquire as to _how_ the Sisterhood had so converted an established den. "A tavern… does it have some manner of basement or wine-cellar, then?"

"Oh, yes, there's a trapdoor in the back, but we boarded it over long ago. It was far too musty for storing medical supplies, and we have no time to maintain such a dirty place."

"Hmm. Thank you." The Amazon walked over to her friend and put a hand on his armored shoulder. "Justin, we have to go." She added in a low voice, "If I'm right in what I'm thinking, these people would die of fright to know what they slumber over."

"Leave, now?" The Paladin blinked up at her, bleary with concentration on his prayer. "If I go, these people will be overcome by the poison once more."

"And if you stay, you will pray until you pass out from exhaustion. Would you confine them to your presence forever? You've cured nothing, only treated the effects. Come with me, and we will slay the source of this plague."

Reluctantly, Justiniel got to his feet. "You believe we've found the source?"

"The well, the closeness of the most sick, the… irony of it. Yes, I fear that evil has made its home here."

"Hmm. I shall believe it when I see Light reveal it. But lead on."

He followed as Vijaya walked toward the back of the infirmary, but she stopped short as she crossed the path of a volunteer nurse bearing a tray of vials.

"These potions – are they the antidotes you've been using to stave off the poison?" The nurse nodded mutely. "Then please, allow us to take a few with us."

"What?" sputtered Justiniel. "First you deny them my prayers, and then deprive them of their medicines? Has the Shadow taken you?"

She shot him a glare. "Their medicines will avail them nothing in the end if we go down there and die!" With a wry apologetic smile to the bewildered nurse, the Amazon took two handsful of vials and crammed them in a belt pouch. Then she continued into the back room with the cellar door. Justiniel could only follow, fuming.

The trapdoor was indeed boarded over and covered with a crate of supplies, but a few minutes' pushing and prying opened the way. The hatch led onto a short drop – whatever ladder had once been there had crumbled utterly – and a stairway that curved sharply around toward the front of the infirmary and downward. Darkness permeated the place.

Vijaya felt along the wall for a few steps. "Huh. Some light, perhaps, Justin?"

With a mutter, Justiniel invoked the Holy Fire, and an old forgotten torch ensconced on the wall burst anew into flame. They proceeded around the turn of the stairwell, another torch lighting the way every few steps. They proceeded in this way until they were directly below the front door.

The stairway bottomed out – and from there the world around them went to Hell.

For that little jaunt, the descent was just as Zemere had described: dusty, ill-kept, and uninteresting. But the room they entered then rippled with heat, and its walls were not stone, but radiant cascades of boiling blood. Human corpses dangled above them, impaled through the gut on poles that stretched across the chamber; the undecayed flesh sizzled in the heat. The stench was tremendous.

"Light protect us," said Justiniel. "If any light from above can reach this unholy place, that is. Ugh. I suppose I should learn to trust your intuition, Amazon."

"It's not always pleasing to be right." A sound like a cloud of bats came from an opening across the room ahead of them. Alarmed, Vijaya readied a javelin to throw –

– and then the fusillade hit them. Pulsing sparks of magical energy, like a meteor shower from a Stygian sky, exploded all around the adventurers, knocking them onto their backs on the blood-slick floor. Before they could recover, a dozen shrieking demons were upon them, streaming in from the doorway. Succubi, their naked, malproportioned forms a parody of feminine sexuality, scratched and pulled at Vijaya and Justiniel with talons and fangs. Those that could not reach past their sisters cavorted obscenely with the hanging corpses instead.

His weapons pinned, Justiniel grappled with the she-demons tormenting him. With a mighty heave, he managed to roll over – a maneuver the succubi gleefully encouraged, as his shoulder fell under the boiling stream of one wall. Roaring in pain and anger, Justiniel triggered his aura of Holy Shock, and the very air around him buzzed with electric charge. Finding their prey suddenly dangerous to touch, the succubi reeled backward, and that was the only opening the Paladin needed. Taking a new, firm grip on his sword, the Atlantean, Justiniel laid about with furious zeal, each blow cutting down another demon. They burst into flames, disintegrating into ash in death. More dove down from the poles above, but these too met his blade and fell. He made his way toward beleaguered Vijaya, who in that moment managed to thrust a javelin up through the abdomen of a succubus above her – and lightning arced out from the struck demon, jumping from enemy to enemy until it slew the last of them.

The two adventurers sat heavily on the ground, breathing hard. "Are – are you hurt, lady Vijaya?"

"Just… battered." Her armor bore scorch marks from the blood star barrage, and her face bled in parallel lines from succubus claws. "You?"

"Burned." He clutched his shoulder, drenched in steaming blood not all his own. "But it will mend, with my prayer."

The Amazon looked him over and bit her lip. "Should we linger a bit to let you do so?"

Justiniel shook his head. "No. I can pray on the move. If another enemy comes, I wish to meet it standing."

Vijaya stood first and extended a hand to help Justiniel to his feet, and they continued through the dark passage. Here the bloody waterfalls gave way to stony black walls encrusted with bones. Ahead, the hall opened out into a circular chamber the same size as the infirmary above. The glow from the hall of blood and from Justiniel's healing aura revealed clouds of acidic green gas, billowing out from the room.

The Paladin put a hand on Vijaya's shoulder. "Wait a moment. I should take some of those antidotes before we venture further."

Her mouth quirked in a wry smile. "Ah, so you admit we need them? I thought your faith protected you from such hazards."

"It does. But do you see me charging into battle clad only in faith? Nay, I bear sword and breastplate to enforce Akarat's will. This is the same."

Shaking her head amusedly, Vijaya handed half of the vials over. "Good, then." Peering into the chamber ahead, she uncorked a potion bottle. "We'll head in and split up, circling around to flank whatever's in there… I'll go left. Gods bless us!" She downed the potion, pulled a javelin from her bundle, and dashed forward. Silently praying for the cleansing of toxins and curses, Justiniel followed.

The chamber featured a low wall much like that around the courtyard outside, which portioned off a ring two yards wide around the room. In the center stood four great pillars of compacted bone, surrounding a demonic creature whose appearance chilled even Justiniel's stalwart heart.

It – or rather, _she_ – stood as tall as three men, her black-skinned limbs splayed in a wide, aggressive stance. Like the succubi, she wore no clothing, but instead of wings, monstrous, many-jointed appendages tipped with stingers extended from her shoulderblades. She paced around the room, where a shimmering crystal shard hung suspended in air above a sunken well, and with every movement, poison ran along the floor under her feet and wafted from her hands in clouds.

_Lilith, Queen of the Temptresses, Lady of Poison. What is she doing on this plane?_ The question, the half-formed terror in his mind, found its answer a moment later when flames leapt up from the well. Among them a hazy image wavered: the torso, head, and arms of a scaly red beast clawing its way up from the fiery depths. The crystal fragment, now floating within the blaze, glinted a bilious yellow as it aligned between the creature-image's curved horns.

_Diablo. She's trying to resurrect the Lord of Terror into this world!_

Suddenly, across the room, Vijaya coughed, her antitoxin not quite enough to block the choking gas. _Damn it!_ Justiniel cursed inwardly._ You should've stayed close to me…_

Lilith immediately rounded upon the Amazon. "Mm, what have we here?" The voice oozed, like the very slime the demon excreted. "Foolish wench, I will enjoy watching your flesh wither."

"You will have no such satisfaction." Defiant, Vijaya hurled her javelin, the legendary weapon _Titan's Revenge._ Eager to seek a foe worthy of its strength, the javelin struck true in the form of a bolt of lightning, sending arcs of electricity racing all over the demon's body. Another like it appeared, ready, in Vijaya's waiting hand.

Mighty though the attack was, Lilith seemed barely to notice it. Reaching out her putrid hands, she sprayed forth a jet of poison that Vijaya had to dive behind the wall to avoid.

"Foulest of evils, be cleansed!" Justiniel pointed his blade at Lilith's back, and a ray of pure light pierced the ceiling of the cavern and struck her, searing her corrupted flesh.

"Your faith is not enough to close the gates of Hell." Barely glancing back over her shoulder, the demoness struck with one of her scorpion-tails. Justiniel's shield deflected the blow – but the deadly stinger still pierced his leg. He stumbled back; his heels caught the wall, and he fell backward, landing in a heap behind it. His legs curled up against his chest as spasms rocked his body. Gasping in agony, he fumbled with one of the antidote flasks, but his trembling hands could not remove the stopper. At last, desperate, he held the vial over his mouth and crushed it, dribbling the dark liquid into his mouth mixed with broken glass.

Choking and spitting shards, but feeling the toxins flee his veins, Justiniel lay flat on his stomach and crawled, dragging sword and shield around the perimeter. He could hear Lilith, unimpressed by these mortal pests, return to her ritual. The glow of the central flame flickered upon the dark outer wall, now.

He reached Vijaya, who still lay flat behind cover, but seemed unhurt. "Well," he said hoarsely, "our most potent magics have failed to do her much harm. What chance have we?"

Vijaya pursed her lips. "I have one idea. I took a glance around using my Inner Sight, and I don't think we've actually crossed into Hell. These netherworldly structures are merely corruptions of the original building."

"But how do we redeem them?"

"Not redeem. Just… ignore. These four bone pillars? I believe they're still the ceiling supports for the cellar."

"So we… bring it down upon her head?" He hesitated, wary of the damage that would do to the clinic itself.

"Exactly. You'll have to do it, though – my javelins would take far too long to bring down those bones. Can you still run?"

Justiniel touched his wounded leg. "With Akarat's blessing, aye."

"Good. I'll create a distraction. There's no time to lose – go!"

The Paladin prayed fervently for fleetness of foot and vaulted the wall, dashing with uncanny speed toward the nearest pillar. Behind him, he felt a ripple of magic, and a furtive backward glance revealed Vijaya standing just inside the low wall, in the open! He willed himself to trust her and stay focused.

The Atlantean hacked through the pillar with a single stroke, and Justiniel turned as quickly as he could toward the next. Blood streamed from his wounded leg. Lilith stood off to his right, her back turned, a shower of red sparks drifting down around her. Suddenly, Vijaya appeared on the opposite side of the room from where she had emerged before! "Over here, you foolish beast."

Justiniel smirked in amusement. _Her Decoy magic. Of course. I just hope it works for long enough._ He reached the second pillar; this time, it took two of his mightiest blows to break through it. As his sword fell the second time, Lilith banished the decoy with a swipe of her claw, and seemed to recognize the trick. She circled around toward Justiniel, cutting off his route to the third pillar.

Then the real Vijaya stood, just to the right of and behind Lilith. Wreathed in a swirling white-and-blue aura, she hurled her next javelin, but this time it did not transform into lightning. It soared, solid and true, and struck the gemstone shard hovering in the center of the room. Both crystal and javelin fell against the wall, behind Justiniel and to his right. The burning image of Diablo vanished.

"_No!_" Lilith veered away from her course, scrambling for the fallen stone. Stumbling through the demoness's noxious wake, Justiniel reached the third pillar and hacked once, twice – three, four times, before it finally snapped.

A tremendous groaning noise reverberated through the room. The ceiling was coming down! Justiniel staggered, coughing and retching, toward the exit of the room, but Vijaya stopped him. "There's no time!" Placing her shield arm around his shoulders, she raised her javelin and cried, "Athulua, look upon your champion in her need! I summon the Valkyrie!"

Justiniel caught a glimpse of a radiant, towering angelic Amazon standing between him and the rapidly approaching, enraged visage of the Lady of Poison. Then stones thundered down around him like a downpour, and all went dark.


	2. Epilogue

Climbing a rope held fast by a javelin plunged into the ground, Vijaya the Amazon emerged from the courtyard well, covered in stone dust and green muck. Planting her feet at the base of the well, she reached back down to help her weary companion the Paladin up the last yard of the climb.

"Thank you," he said, brushing futilely at his equally soiled clothing. "I owe you my life, my friend."

She smirked. "Thank Athulua. It was her Valkyrie who sheltered us and broke through into that underground river." She paused as she looked in the direction of the infirmary. "Oh, no…"

Nothing but a rubble pit remained of the house of healing now. When the supports had given way, the upper floors had fallen inward, collapsing into the deep cellar, taking the clinic and all its occupants with it. Broken cots and piles of shattered potion bottles showed through the lingering cloud of dust, behind the fallen façade and its weathered cross.

"Damn." Vijaya shook her head in frustration. "The townsfolk will see only this destruction, never knowing what we have saved them from. We'd best move on before—"

Justiniel looked at her with an expression of unadulterated anguish, and she halted in mid-sentence. Dismayed, she reached toward him, but he turned and walked silently away, clambering onto the pile of rubble.

Near the center of the heap, a pale human hand protruded from the wreckage. It wore a ring bearing a mark like a darkened eye. Justiniel fell hard on his knees in the crumbled masonry, desperately clasping the hand between his own – but there was no life left in it.

Tears streaming down his face, Justiniel prostrated himself to reverently kiss the ring, then curled the dead hand into a defiant fist. Genuflecting there in the rubble, the Paladin began to pray.

Spires of red-gold light swirled up from the ruin and pierced the clouds, as the Zakarumite's prayer of Redemption released the spirits of the buried dead. He remained there in vigil until the sun set and rose again, and only then did he return to his traveling companion's side. Without saying another word, the two of them resumed their journey.


End file.
